Questions for Self-Published Authors on Kindle

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Honestly, I can't give you one. I'm not a fan of having all my eggs in one basket for one thing, and KDP Select kind of puts you there.



That's what I'd recommend, unless you just want to move copies. However, a lot of times, you're not going to get new readers that way since even if they love your book, there's nothing new to buy.



It appears these aren't Select. They're listed elsewhere for free, and Amazon price matches them (since you can't just list it for free on Amazon).

Personally, I'm going to say I'm not a huge fan of KDP Select. I see some advantages, sure, but not enough to make me solely dependent on just one distribution outlet. Like anything else, you have to do what you feel is the best business decision for yourself. Me? I had enough people tell me they wanted to by my first work but couldn't because it was exclusive to Kindle that I decided to not let that happen again.

To me, skipping out on other distributors without a really, really good reason is leaving money on the table. I skip Smashwords because I'm not a fan of their Meatgrinder and that they put their name on my work (not that they take credit for it, but I don't want anything that can look like self published on my book if I can help it). Those are really good reasons to me to skip out there, but Barnes&Noble? iBook? Not so much.

Thank you, Tom, as always your information is invaluable. :D Definitely some interesting information regarding KDP Select. Thanks for clearing up the confusion for me!
 
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Just based on you saying that, you haven't done enough research to self-publish. Pause--you're not ready.

Read where on Amazon, by the way? I'd love a link. Was it in the forums? I know you didn't read it in Amazon's terms, because it's not true. So either you read someone's opinion (stay away from the KDP forums and the opinions of people there, seriously) or you're interpreting the exclusivity rule to mean that you can't promote. Both are wrong.

Your book can't be available anywhere but at Amazon. You can promote it wherever the hell you want to.

You're also not going to be able to launch with Bookbub. In fact, it's unlikely that you can get a spot on Bookbub at all, let alone within a 90 day Select window, unless your book is already selling fairly well and has a decent number of reviews, has a professional-looking cover, and meets whatever other criteria they judge by. Sometime it's not quality, but full ad slots that get you rejected, too. You can try, but don't expect anything. (And if by some fluke you get a day in your 90 day window, you run the book free or at 99 cents--you have nothing else for people to buy. That's an expensive ad, especially if you're giving the book away for free. Do you know how you would maximum that exposure? Mailing list sign-ups? Teaser to the next book in the back? Do you have any kind of a plan?)

Don't count on Bookbub as part of your strategy, because it's not under your control. Plan things you can control. Later, when your book has reviews, and preferably you have some other books also with reviews and sales, start trying for Bookbub. If you get chosen, then plan a marketing strategy with other promotion around that Bookbub date, absolutely.

Also, I had a situation similar to Polenth's back when Select was new. Many, many people could tell the same story, since it keeps happening to people who want to remove books for whatever reason. I pulled one under-performing title from Smashwords and put it into Select. The Select run was a week from being over, I think, by the time I finally got the title pulled down from Sony, and only then by contacting Sony directly and pointing out how they were selling my book that they no longer had the right to sell. And then Smashwords had the audacity to scold ME for not letting them handle it (I'd been doing that for several weeks and getting nowhere, being told it would removed while watching it stay for sale).

This is one of the many reasons I recommend people to Draft2Digital.com (D2D) instead of Smashwords. Books appear and are removed much more quickly, you get paid monthly instead of quarterly, when you have a problem they respond promptly (one of my issues was emailing Smashwords with no reply, trying again in a week or two, no reply), and I've found it an overall better experience. I still publish with Smashwords, but I don't distribute through them. I make some sales in the actual Smashwords store. But I will never again let them "ship" my books anywhere. You lose control the minute you let anyone distribute for you, even D2D, but it's important to trust that distributor to follow your instructions and add a title, remove the title, change its price, update the file, etc. when you want it done. Those things happen speedily with D2D, and sometimes not at all after weeks of effort with Smash. I only use D2D for iTunes, because Apple is such a pain to deal with directly. Nook and Kobo are better to publish with directly unless you can't for some reason (Nook is still only US, I guess? I don't know offhand).

You can launch a book in Select. Some people with a new pen name have had good results with that. The trick is to be in a genre with a lot of readers, have a book in a popular sub-genre, and appropriate marketing. Inform the sites that list free books when you're about to use your Select freebie days. Or do a Kindle Countdown instead and inform the bargain-book sites.

A Select run lasts only 90 days. After that, you can add your book to other retailers. For some, it's a good launch strategy. It's impossible to say if it might be for you because I know nothing about your book. Even then, sometimes things just don't work as well for some as they do for others, without a specific reason one can easily point to. I think Select is a far better choice if a second book will follow in that 90-day window (and a third is even better). But again, genre, the look of the book, and many other things factor in.

Do some more research on pricing before you make a decision. Watch what other self-publishers do (it's always better to pay attention to what people do more than what they say, because the two don't always mesh). One nice thing about being self-published is the ability to make changes when something doesn't work. But don't take that too far and change the price after only a few days, and back and forth.

I'm a fan of Dean Wesley Smith's, have been for years, but his advice on pricing and marketing don't produce the results for him that I want to see in my business, so it's not valuable to me. It's important for me to see someone achieving the kind of results I want by doing what they're telling me to do. With all due respect to Dean and his amazing, long writing career, I don't think his pricing and marketing advice for self-published stuff is generally good advice. (If you want to sell 3-5 copies each per month of hundreds of different short fiction titles, which is the plan he endorses, maybe he's spot on.)

I feel like you're still a lot of research away from being ready to self-publish, frankly. A lot of the questions you have, you shouldn't have after some research. Don't get all your answers from AW. Check out other boards where hundreds of self-publishers hang out, ranging from raw beginners to outliers. You're not going to get all the info you need from one single place.

Thanks, Shelleyo, your detailed input is much appreciated. My plan, based on the research I've done and helpful information I've learned here, was to launch on KDP, promote and market myself, gain some reviews and then try my luck with Bookbub. As you say, I wouldn't stand much chance applying with them in the beginning stages. So it is something I'll look at further down the line, but something I want to be clued up on before that day comes, hence all my questions.

My plan, of course, does have some gaps to be filled before I self-publish my book and, going by your post, it seems you are highly experienced with self-publishing. I know the value of research, but personal experience is also of great interest to me. Your post has been extremely helpful; perhaps you would care to share your own plan and the measures you took when publishing your first book? Part of my research is asking questions from those already experienced in the field. :D
 

shelleyo

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Thanks, Shelleyo, your detailed input is much appreciated. My plan, based on the research I've done and helpful information I've learned here, was to launch on KDP, promote and market myself, gain some reviews and then try my luck with Bookbub. As you say, I wouldn't stand much chance applying with them in the beginning stages. So it is something I'll look at further down the line, but something I want to be clued up on before that day comes, hence all my questions.

My plan, of course, does have some gaps to be filled before I self-publish my book and, going by your post, it seems you are highly experienced with self-publishing. I know the value of research, but personal experience is also of great interest to me. Your post has been extremely helpful; perhaps you would care to share your own plan and the measures you took when publishing your first book? Part of my research is asking questions from those already experienced in the field. :D

I got lucky in the beginning, and then I learned a ton through trial and error (mistakes are the best teachers, especially expensive ones) and networking with other people doing the same thing. So my first publication stories wouldn't be that helpful.

I am about to launch a new name in romance, however, and my general plan is to have the first of each series at 99 cents initially in the hopes of better sales, which equals a higher ranking and better visibility on the subgenre category bestseller lists and things like the hot new release list. You want as many eyes as possible on that first book.

Before that plateaus at whatever rank it plateaus at, I plan to publish the second story in the series at 99 cents for a very limited time, then $2.99. They're novella/short novel length, 40-45k generally. One series, at least, will go into KDP Select. Probably the second one I publish.

I have a small mailing list for this name already, only about 145 subscribers or so, but I'm hoping the 99 centers will grow that list a bit. I may also offer a free, very short story for signing up as an incentive. I'm toying with the idea of an occasional Amazon gift card giveaway, entry for signing up, but I'm watching some other people's results first to see how engaged those sign-ups are in the end. I'm not convinced.

And I'm not going to be overly worried about a series' sales until the third book is out. That's the big push. When the third is released, I'll do promotion for the first. That's when I'll spend promotional dollars, probably not until then. Readers will have other books to move on to after reading the first. It's also at that point I'll decide whether I think offering the first installment free is a viable option or not. Having a permafree as the first in a series has worked very well for me before. So I'll likely do it at least a couple of times with this name, especially since at least one series will be an ongoing one, not just a trilogy.

I'm still not sure how any of that will help you, because genre really does matter so much. Look at what people in your genre/subgenre are doing, how they price, analyze what works and why. Some genres can command higher prices, some don't seem to support shorter work, some do better with series than others, and on and on.

You could do worse than to read Write, Publish, Repeat by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant and David Wright. Their advice really is aimed at people who write serials or series, but that's because it's usually a lot easier to build a reader base and sell more books when you're writing serials or series. That doesn't mean there's no place for stand-alones (I get tired of series before they're finished, typically, and love stand-alone novels), but they're a harder sell, so you have to adjust your plans accordingly.

Another name of mine will be publishing in a non-romantic, thriller subcat by year's end, and my approach is going to be completely different, because it's going to be a multi-part serial. If were an epic fantasy, I'd have a different strategy, as I would for a romantic comedy, or a historical drama, or any other genre.
 
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Thanks so much, Shelleyo, for your advice! I'm curious to know more about adjusting according to genre. I have been taking note of what others in my particular genre have been doing. Until I finish the second one, my book will be a standalone. It's a YA Paranormal Romance - do you have any knowledge/suggestions for that particular genre?

Also, is 99 cents the best price of higher rankings and better visibility in general for first books?
 

AnnaPappenheim

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This is one of the many reasons I recommend people to Draft2Digital.com (D2D) instead of Smashwords. Books appear and are removed much more quickly, you get paid monthly instead of quarterly, when you have a problem they respond promptly (one of my issues was emailing Smashwords with no reply, trying again in a week or two, no reply), and I've found it an overall better experience. I still publish with Smashwords, but I don't distribute through them. I make some sales in the actual Smashwords store. But I will never again let them "ship" my books anywhere. You lose control the minute you let anyone distribute for you, even D2D, but it's important to trust that distributor to follow your instructions and add a title, remove the title, change its price, update the file, etc. when you want it done. Those things happen speedily with D2D, and sometimes not at all after weeks of effort with Smash. I only use D2D for iTunes, because Apple is such a pain to deal with directly. Nook and Kobo are better to publish with directly unless you can't for some reason (Nook is still only US, I guess? I don't know offhand).

This was really helpful to read! I'm thankful you posted this. I'm still a ways off from self-publishing, but I will look into D2D more.
 
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So my book is now up after much toil, tears and sweat! Book can be found here. Everyone in this thread has really helped me out and given me some insight, so wanted to say thanks very much. :D

My self-publishing journey is now taking off and a lot of my focus is on promotion, promotion, more promotion and, of course writing. Huge challenge - but personally I've always thrived on challenges more than having things easy, so I'm greatly anticipating the days, weeks, months and years to come.

Let's see if I can live up to my name, launch a fierce attack on the publishing world and find my way to victory!
 
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